August 27
GUEST: Thom Hartmann, top rated progressive national and internationally syndicated talk show host and New York Times bestselling author of twenty-six books, talks about his recently published work, The Hidden History of Monopolies - How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream.The Thom Hartmann Hidden History Series
We were honored to have Thom Hartmann on Activist Radio. His latest book, The Hidden History of Monopolies is a fascinating exploration of how big corporations become even bigger, and in the process came to dominate our public discourse. It has all happened before, during the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties. In each case the apex of corporate power was followed by a catastrophic economic collapse, and then the public demand for regulation and reform. Like always it was the working people who experienced the most devastation.
One question got Thom talking about socialism. According to him, socialism has never worked, although he did make some exception for the socialist oriented democracies of Scandinavia. According to Thom, the lending of capital is always necessary if businesses are to flourish. He gave an example of a travel business he had started at one time. By borrowing capital, he had turned it into a very successful business, and one that he sold for several million dollars.
No, capitalism is something to be reformed, not done away with. His Hidden History series is blueprint for reform aimed at the common man (and woman too). Read them and you will simply know more about the evils that have plagued our democracy for the last hundred years. And we are well past the time when the giant corporation and trusts should have been busted up.
The future of reform doesn't look too promising either. We pay exorbitant prices for everything, making the billionaires at the top richer than even they can imagine. Meanwhile wages have stagnated for so long that the American Dream has taken its place next to the Holy Ghost. Was it "just a dream some of us had," like Joan Mitchell's lament for peace?
